Michelene Pesantubbee, a historian and citizen of the Choctaw Nation, has identified a dilemma inherent to research on the status of women in her tribe during the 1600s and 1700s: the primary sources from that era, travel narratives and other accounts by male European colonizers, underestimate the degree of power conferred on Choctaw women by their traditional roles in political, civic, and ceremonial life. Pesantubbee argues that the Choctaw oral tradition and findings from archaeological sites in the tribe’s homeland supplement the written record by providing crucial insights into those roles.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

A) It details the shortcomings of certain historical sources, then argues that research should avoid those sources altogether.

B) It lists the advantages of a particular research method, then acknowledges a historian’s criticism of that method.

C) It characterizes a particular topic as especially challenging to research, then suggests a related topic for historians to pursue instead.

D) It describes a problem that arises in research on a particular topic, then sketches a historian’s approach to addressing that problem.

Horizontal gene transfer occurs when an organism of one species acquires genetic material from an organism of another species through nonreproductive means. The genetic material can then be transferred “vertically” in the second species—that is, through reproductive inheritance. Scientist Atma Ivancevic and her team have hypothesized infection by invertebrate parasites as a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer between vertebrate species: while feeding, a parasite could acquire a gene from one host, then relocate to a host from a different vertebrate species and transfer the gene to it in turn.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A)It describes a means by which horizontal gene transfer might occur among vertebrates.

B) It explains why parasites are less susceptible to horizontal gene transfer than their hosts are.

C) It clarifies why some genes are more likely to be transferred horizontally than others are.

D) It contrasts how horizontal gene transfer occurs among vertebrates with how it occurs among invertebrates. 

"How lifelike are they?” Many computer animators prioritize this question as they strive to create ever more realistic environments and lighting. Generally, while characters in computer-animated films appear highly exaggerated, environments and lighting are carefully engineered to mimic reality. But some animators, such as Pixar’s Sanjay Patel, are focused on a different question. Rather than asking first whether the environments and lighting they’re creating are convincingly lifelike,Patel and others are asking whether these elements reflect their films’ unique stories.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined question in the text as a whole?

A) It represents a concern of computer animators who are more interested in creating unique backgrounds and lighting effects than realistic ones.

B) It conveys the uncertainty among many computer animators about how to create realistic animations using current technology.

C) It reflects a primary goal that many computer animators have for certain components of the animations they produce.

D) It illustrates a reaction that audiences typically have to the appearance of characters created by computer animators

According to historian Vicki L. Ruiz, Mexican American women made crucial contributions to the labor movement during World War II. At the time, food processing companies entered into contracts to supply United States armed forces with canned goods. Increased production quotas conferred greater bargaining power on the companies’ employees, many of whom were Mexican American women: employees insisted on more favorable benefits, and employers, who were anxious to fulfill the contracts, complied. Thus, labor activism became a platform for Mexican American women to assert their agency.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A)It offers an example of a trend in the World War II–era economy discussed earlier in the text.

B) It elaborates on a claim about labor relations in a particular industry made earlier in the text.

C) It notes a possible exception to the historical narrative of labor activism sketched earlier in the text.

D) It provides further details about the identities of the workers discussed earlier in the text.

Some studies have suggested that posture can influence cognition, but we should not overstate this phenomenon. A case in point: In a 2014 study, Megan O’Brien and Alaa Ahmed had subjects stand or sit while making risky simulated economic decisions. Standing is more physically unstable and cognitively demanding than sitting; accordingly, O’Brien and Ahmed hypothesized that standing subjects would display more risk aversion during the decision-making tasks than sitting subjects did, since they would want to avoid further feelings of discomfort and complicated risk evaluations. But O’Brien and Ahmed actually found no difference in the groups’ performance. 

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A) It argues that research findings about the effects of posture on cognition are often misunderstood, as in the case of O’Brien and Ahmed’s study.

B) It presents the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to critique the methods and results reported in previous studies of the effects of posture on cognition.

C) It explains a significant problem in the emerging understanding of posture’s effects on cognition and how O’Brien and Ahmed tried to solve that problem. 

D) It discusses the study by O’Brien and Ahmed to illustrate why caution is needed when making claims about the effects of posture on cognition.

The following text is from Charlotte Forten Grimké’s 1888 poem “At Newport.”
Oh, deep delight to watch the gladsome waves
Exultant leap upon the rugged rocks;
Ever repulsed, yet ever rushing on—
Filled with a life that will not know defeat;
To see the glorious hues of sky and sea.
The distant snowy sails, glide spirit like,
Into an unknown world, to feel the sweet
Enchantment of the sea thrill all the soul,
Clearing the clouded brain, making the heart
Leap joyous as it own bright, singing waves!

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined portion in the text as a whole?

A) It portrays the surroundings as an imposing and intimidating scene.

B) It characterizes the sea’s waves as a relentless and enduring force.

C) It conveys the speaker’s ambivalence about the natural world.

D) It draws a contrast between the sea’s waves and the speaker’s thoughts.

The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story “John Redding Goes to Sea.” John is a child who lives in a town in the woods. Perhaps ten-year-old John was puzzling to the folk there in the Florida woods for he was an imaginative child and fond of day-dreams. The St. John River flowed a scarce three hundred feet from his back door. On its banks at this point grow numerous palms, luxuriant magnolias and bay trees. On the bosom of the stream float millions of delicately colored hyacinths. [John Redding] loved to wander down to the water’s edge, and, casting in dry twigs, watch them sail away down stream to Jacksonville, the sea, the wide world and [he] wanted to follow them.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A)It provides an extended description of a location that John likes to visit.

B) It reveals that some residents of John’s town are confused by his behavior.

C) It suggests that John longs to experience a larger life outside the Florida woods."

D) It illustrates the uniqueness of John’s imagination compared to the imaginations of other children.

The 1967 release of Harold Cruse’s book The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual isolated him from almost all other scholars and activists of the American Civil Rights Movement—though many of those thinkers disagreed with each other, he nonetheless found ways to disagree with them all. He thought that activists who believed that Black people such as himself should culturally assimilate were naïve. But he also sharply criticized Black nationalists such as Marcus Garvey who wanted to establish independent, self-contained Black economies and societies, even though Cruse himself identified as a Black nationalist.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A)It helps explain Cruse’s position with respect to the community of civil rights thinkers.

B) It describes a direction that Cruse felt the Civil Rights Movement ought to take.

C) It indicates that Cruse’s reputation as a persistent antagonist of other scholars is undeserved.

D) It describes a controversy that Cruse’s work caused within the Black nationalist movement.

The following text is adapted from Indian Boyhood, a 1902 memoir by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman), a Santee Dakota writer. In the text, Ohiyesa recalls how the women in his tribe harvested maple syrup during his childhood. Now the women began to test the trees—moving leisurely among them, axe in hand, and striking a single quick blow, to see if the sap would appear. The trees, like people, have their individual characters; some were ready to yield up their life blood, while others were more reluctant. Now one of the birchen basins was set under each tree, and a hardwood chip driven deep into the cut which the axe had made. From the corners of this chip—at first drop by drop, then more freely—the sap trickled into the little dishes.

Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?

A)It portrays the range of personality traits displayed by the women as they work.

B) It foregrounds the beneficial relationship between humans and maple trees.

C) It elaborates on an aspect of the maple trees that the women evaluate.

D) It demonstrates how human behavior can be influenced by the natural environment.

Early in the Great Migration of 1910–1970, which involved the mass migration of Black people from the southern to the northern United States, political activist and Chicago Defender writer Fannie Barrier Williams was instrumental in helping other Black women establish themselves in the North. Many women hoped for better employment opportunities in the North because, in the South, they faced much competition for domestic employment and men tended to get agricultural work. To aid with this transition, Barrier Williams helped secure job placement in the North for many women before they even began their journey.

Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?

A) To establish that Barrier Williams used her professional connections to arrange employment for other Black women,including jobs with the Chicago Defender.

B) To demonstrate that the factors that motivated the start of the Great Migration were different for Black women than they were for Black men.

C) To provide an overview of the employment challenges faced by Black women in the agricultural and domestic spheres in the southern United States.

D) To introduce and illustrate Barrier Williams’s integral role in supporting other Black women as their circumstances changed during part of the Great Migration.